Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was a highly literary architect, who appears to have valued Shakespeare for the architectural pictures he conjured up, and also as a moral teacher. He had a deep knowledge of Shakespeare s work, quoting (and misquoting) it often, notably in his Royal Academy lectures. His fascination with Shakespeare is evident both in his library and in the Shakespearian references throughout his house-museum, the most obvious being the Shakespeare Recess, a shrine to the bard on the staircase. The four essays in this volume look at the influence of Shakespeare on Soane s architecture, against the wider background of the 18th-century Shakespearean revival; at Soane as a "bardolator" and bibliophile and at contemporary performance and theater-going, with a particular focus on the plays seen by Soane and his wife Eliza. The essays are illustrated by a number of illustrations in full color, the majority drawn from Soane s own collection. This book was published to coincide with an exhibition with the same title shown at Sir John Soane s Museum as part of the nationwide commemoration of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare in 2016.".